【正文】
market segmentation studies where individuals who were predisposed to dedicate more attention and effort to a specific decision problem (ie choice of a brand) have been found to be more likely to seek more value. For example, Quester and Smart report that more involved consumers rated wine attributes to be generally more important than consumers who were less involved with wine, and Richins and Bloch demonstrated effects of consumer involvement on situational information acquisition behaviour. In a brand management context, this would mean that if a person is very much involved with a product category, then this person is likely to seek greater brand benefits across the board than a person who is less involved with it. It is, therefore, expected that consumer involvement will be positively correlated with many, if not all, salient brand benefits. DEMOGRAPHIC AND BEHAVIOURAL FACTORS Historically, brand managers have had a strong interest in linking observable consumer characteristics to choice behaviour in order to develop actionable marketing strategies. While past studies tied unobservable variables including susceptibility to interpersonal influence and consumer disposition to consumer demographics, the current research explicitly examines selected demographic and behavioural variables as potential drivers of situational variation in desired brand benefits and choice. Those variables include consumer age, gender and winebuying behaviour (purchase frequency, spending per bottle and wine expenditures). DISCUSSION While past research demonstrated variation in individual behaviour69 and specifically in consumer brand preferences across situations, little is known in terms of defining the drivers of corresponding effects. The present research attempts to close this gap in order to assist brand managers in designing and managing brands that are either robust across consumption occasions or tailored towards a particular situation. Building upon and extending past studies suggesting consumer personality,situational disposition, demographic and behavioural drivers of situational variation, and integrating research identifying relevant consumption occasions, reference groups, and brand benefits for wine, data were collected from a consumer sample in one general session and three consumption scenarios typical for wine. The findings of this study confirm that individual choice of brands varies across three situations. This variation can be attributed to the variations in brand benefits that consumers desire which in turn are related to personality, situational disposition, demographics and behavioural factors. These findings are important for several reasons. First, they provide a new explanation to supplement earlier accounts of variations in individual behaviour across situations, specifically brand results demonstrate that when consumers know what group of others will observe their behaviour (eg friends), their choice will adjust accordingly. Because the perceived norms of behaviourally relevant reference groups influence brand choice, more attention needs to be given to the social context in which past studies were conducted. By confirming that the salience of different reference groups induces variation in impressionmanagement concerns, leading individuals to alter their choices, this study is in line with past suggestions. Secondly, beyond simply confirming that variation exists in consumer brand choice, this research identifies drivers of differential brand choice. Initially, the benefits consumers desire in a brand were found to be a useful concept for explaining their choice. Using pooled data across situations as well as for each situation separately, the six benefits dimensions included in the model were found to be useful predictors of brand choice. More robust brand designs emerged showing benefits patterns consistent across situations while other brands were more susceptible to s